The present invention relates to hand applicators for installing radially assembled spring retaining rings and, in particular, for installing radially assembled spring retaining rings into external grooves of workpieces.
Radially assembled spring retaining rings, such as the type disclosed in Wurzel U.S. Pat. No. 3,595,123 issued July 27, 1971, have long been employed as stop or limiting elements on machined parts. Retaining rings of this type are installed in external grooves formed in the parts. Externally applied retaining rings are installed in external grooves by pushing the open side of the ring against the groove, causing the ring ends to separate. When the thus-expanded ring has fully entered the groove, the ring ends snap-back to secure the ring in place.
In order to facilitate the installation of radially applied rings, it has been proposed to employ a hand applicator which forcefully inserts a ring into a groove of a machine part. Hand-held applicators have been proposed, for example, in Erdman U.S. Pat. No. 2,978,802 issued Apr. 11, 1961 and Janecka U.S Pat. No. 3,681,839 issued Aug. 8, 1972.
In addition, the assignee of the present invention has heretofore marketed an applicator which comprises a hand-held housing on which is mounted a magazine and a nose assembly. The nose assembly contains a ramp along which retaining rings can be pushed, and a forwardly open slot for receiving a workpiece such as a shaft, the width of the slot being equal to the diameter of the shaft. The magazine feeds retaining rings to the ramp one-at-a-time. The housing carries a pusher and a fluid-driven mechanism for reciprocating the pusher when the user activates a trigger on the housing. When the pusher travels forwardly, it pushes a retaining ring into a groove on the workpiece. It can occur, however, that the ring can become skewed (i.e., slightly rotated about an axis oriented perpendicularly to the plane of the ring) as the ring is being pushed along the ramp toward the workpiece. If that occurs, the open end of the ring will have moved out of alignment with the groove in the workpiece and, rather than entering the groove, the ring will simply be jammed against the workpiece.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to minimize or obviate problems of the above-discussed type.
Another object is to provide a novel applicator for installing retaining rings into external grooves of workpieces.
An additional object is to assure that the ring will not become skewed as it travels toward the workpiece.